Open to ‘what actually happens’

Bradley Burston is such a great example of the fair-minded writing we all crave for, specially in conflict situations where a ‘my side’ perspective almost always comes out as ‘my side is right.’

An Israeli journalist, a columnist for Haaretz, Israel’s oldest newspaper, and senior editor of Haaretz.com, which publishes his blog, "A Special Place in Hell", he has been described as “… a real dragon-slayer” who challenges and often demolishes the cherished notions of both, the anti-Palestinian camp within Israel, and the anti-Israel camp within Palestine.

Born in America, Burston moved to Israel and helped re-establish Kibbutz Gezer, also serving as a medic in the Israel Defense Forces. It is clear he loves his country, but will not allow this love to stop him from seeing and naming certain realities.

Wanting to keep sharing here peace-news that does not get noticed much, I turn to one of his columns, where he writes in the wake of the Gaza flotilla tragedy:

“Through it all, the robust internal Palestinian debate over non-violence, underway abroad as well as within the territories, has gone largely unnoticed in Israel.

Hereabouts, the problem goes beyond Seeing is Believing.

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All too often, the problem is the opposite: What you do not believe, you will refuse to see.

It may well be more difficult for Israelis to comprehend the idea of Palestinian non-violence than for Palestinians to do so. For many Israelis, the very thought of non-violent Palestinian protest goes so far against the grain as to be incomprehensible, lethally suspicious, a violation of a bedrock narrative.”

He writes of how in many cases, the Israeli media actively ignores or obscures non-violent Palestinian protest, as when hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians marched together through the streets of Silwan, East Jerusalem, protesting a plan by Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat to evict Arab residents and raze 22 houses for a settler-oriented tourism project. Shockingly, Israel Channel 2 Television chose to show its viewers footage of Muslims praying at the site, followed by youths throwing rocks at Israeli troops. But the ‘shocking’ thing was that it was all previously filmed older footage! “The message was clear: Nothing new here. Nothing to see here, folks – move along now.”

But Burston speaks up to show there was very definitely something else going on; the protest was not, as the brief news item hinted, one more example of radical Islamists inciting hotheads to violence against Israelis. Far from it.

“What actually happened...” he reports, and what was not revealed my most reporting, was that “... this was a march in which settlers stared in wonderment and a certain anxiety at a large and unified force of Jews and Arabs taking a powerful stand against occupation.”

And he goes on to describe how when one Palestinian youth picked up a rock to throw at the settlers, Arabs and Jews alike stopped him, and distanced him from the march.

And lest we even begin to put on our holier-than-though expressions, it would serve us well to acknowledge that this kind of misrepresentation is not unique to the press in that country, but something the press, or at least those who are slaves to a slanted ideology, or to a particularly political party – in our country or any other - is often guilty of.

We are challenged to consciously broaden our minds and open our hearts to our own biases towards ‘the other’, which may often end up making the truth the most unfortunate victim of a blinkered patriotism.

May we be blessed with clear eyes and clearer hearts to be truly aware of ‘what actually is happening’, and with the courage to speak of it.